Atef translates for Mohammad and functions as his son’s nurse. Every few hours, he helps four nurses amid pained screams of his son to change his position and spare him bedsores.

Atef explained to us about his son’s condition. ( All medical

information are according to the information given by Adnan and ‘Atef,

we were unable to speak to the medics ). His son sustained burns of

various degrees on his face, along his left arm and hand, and on both

lower legs. The missile blew off the flesh of his right hand, abdomen

and both thighs. The medical team at Kaplan hospital replaced these

parts with flesh taken from the back of Mohammad’s thighs. The thighbone on one of his legs is fractured four times and was pushed out of the leg. The medics reset it. It is now fixed with a splinter and screws.

Both legs are twisted with his swollen feet pointing sharply to the

right. At Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, the medical staff had performed a

horizontal incision along the lower end of his abdomen to check for

shrapnel and other injuries. At Kaplan hospital, the procedure was

repeated with two vertical incisions along his lower abdomen. Mohammad doesn’t know this yet, but one testicle had to be removed.

Until a few days ago, Mohammad was mostly sedated, but now, he remains awake until he gets more painkillers. Atef spends most of his time in the small room with his son, feeding him cold water whenever Mohammad asks for it, adjusting pillows, blankets, and a fan, calling for the nurse, and mostly watching helplessly as his son screams in pain. At

night, he barely sleeps. Mohammad has nightmares of missiles attacking him again, he thinks he is burning up from the inside, and the pain becomes intolerable. This morning, Atef finally shaved off Mohammad’s thick hair to prevent him from tearing out more chunks in bouts of pain. Gradually, Mohammad makes attempts to eat, so Atef feeds him soft white bread dunked in cold milk.

Atef would like to install a TV above Mohammad’s bed to distract him

from his pain and fears, but he cannot afford the 700NIS the hospital

asks. Sometimes, he calls in random visitors of other patients just so

Mohammad can see other people beside his father, uncle and the medical team. And indeed, when we got up to leave the room in order to visitnIbrahim, Mohammad got anxious, and he begged his father to tell us to stay, to not leave him alone. He calmed down only when we left our bags with him to guarantee him that we will return.

Like his brother Adnan, Atef looks worn out, exhausted. On top of the

daily turmoil at the hospital that has become his life, he worries about

his 11 children and his wife back in Gaza. He knows that, like Ibrahim’s

siblings, the younger ones have nightmares, too. They have seen their

brothers covered in blood.

Days ago, Atef ran out of credit on his mobile phone, and he hasn’t been

able to talk to his family – or anyone else – since. When we gave him a

telephone card, he immediately called his wife and passed the phone to

Mohammad.

When we asked Atef and Adnan what they need, they replied “money”. Like the majority of the adults in Gaza, Adnan and ‘Atef are unemployed and have been living off the meager Gazan equivalent of social security

(wakala). The medical care of their sons is fortunately covered by some

agreement between the PA and Israeli authorities, both men can sleep at the hospital and eat the food prepared for the patients, but after 11

days, they cannot bring themselves to touch it any more. They cannot

afford to refill their mobiles phones to call their wifes and children

back in Gaza, they cannnot afford the sandwiches or drinks at the

Hospital cafeteria, and even if they could pay the considerably higher

prices of Israeli supermarkets, they are not allowed to leave the

hospital to shop. When we met them, they have run out of essentials,

such as soap (which they use in lieu of shampoo/shower gel). They worry how they can possibly sustain their extremely difficult lives and

conditions at the Israeli hospital for the next few months.

We first heard about 12 year old Ibrahim in an article that detailed

that he lost both of his hands while playing football due to a missile

attack. It turns out Ibrahim’s condition is much more severe than that.

After eight days in coma at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, where medical

staff were unable to treat his hands due to lack of adequate equipment,

so they had to cut them off to avoid gangrene, Ibrahim finally regained

consciousness. He was still awake when he passed through Erez crossing two days later together with his cousin (Mohammed who suffered from the same attack) his father and uncle. When they arrived at Kaplan hospital, he had fallen back into a coma. He immediately underwent a five-hour surgery. Since then, Ibrahim has not regained consciousness.

Ibrahim sustained various degrees of burns all over his body. The bones

in both of his legs are fractured, and an alarming portion of his flesh

was blown off in the explosion. After seven days at Kaplan hospital, he

needed blood transfusions due to internal bleeding. Ibhrahim’s liver is

damaged, his lungs are punctured, he has shrapnel in one eye, he is deaf in one ear, he sustained burns of various degrees all over his body.